The CEO of SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou, heard on Tuesday in the Senate a few hours after learning of his non-renewal for a second term at the head of the public group, defended an agreement on the end of his career according to him “reasonable, balanced and useful”. “We cannot transform a public company of 150,000 railway workers with a strong house culture against its employees,” underlined Jean-Pierre Farandou, who will give up his place after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, while revealing a certain anger in the face of the controversy. raised by this agreement.
“My conviction is that it is a good agreement, which does not circumvent the law on pensions, which is in the practices of large public and private companies,” underlined Jean-Pierre Farandou, insisting on its “reasonable” cost. valued at 35 million euros.
The boss of the SNCF detailed before the Committee on Regional Planning and Sustainable Development the content of the agreement as well as the method, deploring the attacks to which he was the subject from the right and from part of the government.
The agreement provides for the creation of an additional seniority level to improve the salary of railway workers at the end of their career and early retirement measures for certain professions meeting the criteria of arduousness, such as drivers or controllers. “Harbouriousness is a real subject for us. Indeed, we are an industrial, worker, production company which works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 91,000 railway workers have a difficult job,” recalled Jean-Pierre Farandou, referring to night and outdoor work. “There are 42,000 employees aged over 50. It’s considerable (…) we at SNCF, our philosophy is to give these people a future,” he continued. On the cost of the agreement, “it will not cost the taxpayer anything since I gain 1.3 billion in net income, I can finance 35 million, I have money,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou. .
As for the price of tickets, the SNCF transported 122 million travelers by TGV in 2023 “do the math, that’s 29 cents per ticket. Do you think I’m going to raise the price by 29 cents? It’s ridiculous”. Jean-Pierre Farandou also assured that he had always put the Ministry of Transport and Matignon in the loop, without ever negotiating in secret as he was accused of.
In an interview given to Le Monde on February 23, “you have a ten-line paragraph which explicitly mentions that I am going to open a negotiation on the end of my career and arduousness. (…) Everyone can read Le Monde,” he snapped.